Fighter Jet News
F-35 Lightning II News
Norway activated QRA with F-35A at Evenes AB.
January 6, 2022 (by
Bjorn Claes) -
Just before noon today the Norwegian Air Force marked a significant milestone. After reaching IOC status back on 6 November 2019, today marked another milestone with the startup of the QRA assignment from Evenes AB in the north of the country.
Norway has been steadily working on tranforming its air force to conduct operations with the F-35 over the past years. This event marks the final transition from the F-16 to the F-35 with the first ending 42 years of operations for the RNoAF. In the past the QRA assignment with the F-16s was conducted from Bodø AB roughly 300km more to the south. With the arrival of the F-35 it was decided to base all these aircraft at Ørland AB with a QRA detachment not in Bodø AB but further to the north at Evenes AB to better counter Russian aircraft flying around the north of Scandinavia.
In the coming years more F-35s will be delivered with the full complement of 52 jets being ready in 2024 whereas FOC will be reached in 2025 with all operations to be conducted with the F-35. This does not mean the F-16 will soldier on till then. The Norwegian staff has already decided that the F-16s swannsong will be somewhere in 2022 with an exact date still to be decided on. But that the end of the F-16 era is drawing to a close fast is certain. This also marks a special event as Norway will be the first of the original F-16 consortium to phase out this jet.
RNoAF F-35 #5503 to be assigned to 332 skv is coming in for landing at Ørland AB on August 11th, 2021 on its delivery flight. [RNoAF photo]
In the coming years more F-35s will be delivered with the full complement of 52 jets being ready in 2024 whereas FOC will be reached in 2025 with all operations to be conducted with the F-35. This does not mean the F-16 will soldier on till then. The Norwegian staff has already decided that the F-16s swannsong will be somewhere in 2022 with an exact date still to be decided on. But that the end of the F-16 era is drawing to a close fast is certain. This also marks a special event as Norway will be the first of the original F-16 consortium to phase out this jet.